1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clothing treatment apparatus, and in particular, to a household drying-ironing combined machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays there are several kinds of portable drying machines in the household electrical appliance market. For example, the prior art reference 1 (Chinese Patent: CN2567261Y) discloses a “clothes dryer”. The clothes dryer comprises a warm air blower and a supporting rod provided on the warm air blower and an intake opening formed on the bottom of the warm fan. A fan is disposed above the intake opening within the warm air blower. A venting opening is formed, corresponding to the exit end of the fan, at the upper part of the warm air blower. A heater is provided in an air duct between the fan and the venting port. Air flow from the warm air blower spreads out upwardly through the venting port. The hot air flow may blow into these clothes placed above the warm air blower. However, such clothes dryer only has a clothes drying function by application of the hot air flow, and no clothes ironing function. Further, this dryer has a relatively large volume, and it is difficult to be stored when not in use.
Another prior art reference 2 (United States Patent: US20040144140A1) discloses a “steam apparatus”. This steam apparatus comprises a steam engine and a body. At the head of the body is provided a distributor for discharge of the steam. The body also comprises a bracket for hanging of the clothes. In this steam apparatus, clothes ironing may be performed when the clothes is hung on the bracket. However, similar to that of the prior art reference 1, the steam apparatus in the prior art reference 2 has only clothes ironing function but no clothes drying function. Accordingly, this steam apparatus cannot achieve the ironing function and the drying function at the same time.
Bearing in mind of the above prior arts, some examples of a multi-functional clothes treatment apparatus for performing the clothes ironing and clothes drying simultaneously are developed. For example, the prior art reference 3 (Chinese Patent: CN2903148Y) discloses a “steam ironing and drying machine”, and, the prior art reference 4 (Chinese Patent: CN101603264A) discloses a “steam brush with clothes drying function”. Both the prior art references 3 and 4 relate to the drying-ironing combined electrical appliance which adopts the arrangement that the functional elements in a clothes dryer and those in a steam ironer are combined together so as to achieve both of the abovementioned functions.
In the prior art reference 3, a clothes drying bracket is disposed over an air heater. Venting opening is annually arranged on the air heater around the connection between the clothes drying bracket and the air heater. A cylindrical hood is further provided by covering the drying bracket from the top and closed sealedly below the venting opening such that it contains the drying bracket and the venting opening within an accommodation space thereof. This arrangement can be used to perform the clothes ironing and clothes drying simultaneously. However, since it is not covered by the hood when performing the ironing, the hot air flow from the air heater will easily disperse to the ambient environments such that the hot air flow cannot be sufficiently utilized. Accordingly, it has disadvantages such as reduced utilization ratio of the hot air flow, prolonged drying time, increased electrical energy consumption, and low work efficiency.
In the prior art reference 4, a hot air flow diffusion hood has its lower end connected to a housing and has its central top end connected to a clothes hanger. Venting opening is provided at the periphery of the top end. An enclosure is provided around the clothes hanger. The hot air flow diffusion hood is located at the bottom of the enclosure and has an outflow opening at the top thereof. Since the whole clothes hanger is enclosed in the hood, little of the hot air flow will disperse. As to the clothes drying, it is only required to hang the clothes on the clothes through a pick-and-place door. Accordingly, for the clothes drying, it has advantages such as low electrical energy consumption, shortened drying time, and high work efficiency. However, for the clothes ironing, the steam sprayer, which is used to perform the ironing, must go through the door of the hood and into the inside of the hood if the hood has not been removed. Since use of the steam sprayer is restricted due to existence of the door, it is not easy to perform the ironing quickly. Once the clothes ironing and the clothes drying are performed simultaneously, the door should be kept in an opened state, and so, the hot air flow within the hood will continuously disperse to the outside through the door and water vapor from the ironing member will run towards the hood, thereby resulting in prolonging of drying time and waste of electrical energy.
If the hood has been removed before the ironing workings, the clothes would be ironed by directly hanging it onto the clothes rack. In this way, the disadvantages brought by inconvenient operations of the ironing are avoided. However, removal of the hood gives rise to additional burden as the clothes hanger is used both during the clothes ironing and during the clothes drying. In the process of clothes drying, the clothes hanger is required to be covered with the hood. In the process of clothes ironing, the hood should be removed. And, in the next clothes drying, the clothes hanger needs to be covered with the hood. Repeated assemble and removal of the hood turn out to be troublesome, labor-intensive and inefficient. Further, the clothes ironing and the clothes drying are not performed simultaneously. Accordingly, the conventional drying-ironing combined machine neither perform the clothes ironing and the clothes drying simultaneously nor operate the clothes ironing in an open environment. In fact, the conventional machine performs the clothes ironing and the clothes drying alternatively, which leads to inefficiency and labor-intensiveness.
Moreover, in the arrangements both in the prior art references 3 and 4, the control panel is provided at the housing of the machine, and, the cylindrical hood is over the clothes hanger and ends up at connection between a wind shed and the housing. As size of the bottom of the cylindrical hood is greater than that of the housing, the cylindrical hood would just cover over the whole housing when in an unfolded and inflated state. When in use, in order to know current status of the drying operation shown on the control panel, the operator has to squat so as to observe the control panel and operate, because it is hard to observe the control panel when the operator stands 1.5 meters away around the hood. Theoretically, it is difficult for the operator to see clearly those parameters shown on the control panel when he/she is away at a distance of 1.5 meter or more, due to limited range of vision. Actually, in practice, the operator firstly has a vague idea where the control panel is located when he/she is away at a distance 1.5 meter or more, and then, gets closer to operate the control panel.
Obviously, this brings great inconvenience to the operators. In order to solve this problem, the person skilled in the art adopts a larger housing in which the control panel is positioned at a more outward location, however, this solution requires a bulky volume and increases the cost. That is, there is still no ideal solution which takes accounts of both the manufacturer's gain and the operator's benefit.
In addition, since the supporting pillar is located inside the hood in the prior art, the hot air flow in the hood would be delivered directly to the pillar to cause the pillar to be overheated, thereby resulting in hidden trouble and potential safety problem of the machine.